Magnus Granberg

Trouble, Had It All My Days is a 61-minute piece by Magnus Granberg for Skogen, the Stockholm ensemble he has written for since it began. It was made for the group's twentieth anniversary, and Granberg invited as many current and former members as the budget allowed, plus one new one, clarinettist Heather Roche. Thirteen musicians play on the record, among them Angharad Davies on violin and Toshimaru Nakamura on no-input mixing board.

The piece was performed at Music We'd Like to Hear in London, where Rhodri Davies joined to make fourteen, and at Konserthuset in Stockholm. Between the two concerts it was recorded at Atlantis in Stockholm on 27 November 2025. The line-up sets three violins, cello and clarinet against vibraphone, harp, steel-string guitar, prepared piano and percussion, plus objects, contact microphones, a thumb piano, a mixing board and a loudspeaker.

The starting point is an aria from Bach's cantata BWV 21, Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis. Granberg had first worked on it for Karl Dunér's staging of The Persians and The Trojan Women at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, then set the material aside. It has since produced this piece, a string quartet and a solo for trumpeter Nate Wooley. The title comes from a song by Mississippi John Hurt, which happens to echo the cantata's own, roughly "I had much trouble".

As in Granberg's earlier work for Skogen, detailed written frameworks are combined with improvisation, and he compares the method to Indian music or jazz more than to the contemporary classical repertoire. The music stays mostly restrained, even with so many players. It follows How Lonely Sits the City, Let Pass my Weary Guiltless Ghost and Holde Träume, kehret wieder! on the same label.

Recorded by Niclas Lindström and Calle Gustavsson, mixed and mastered by Anders Dahl. Cover artwork, Gendalen, by Magnus Gramén.